Friday, November 9, 2012

SIUniverse Blog Parade Day Twelve: Yellow Peril

I inherited my love of comics from my dad. He was a huge Marvel fan
and when my brother and I found his old collection of Iron Man,
Spider-Man, and Thor comics, we were hooked. It never really occurred
to me as I was growing up, but as I was about college age, I noticed
that my favorite comics lacked heroes that looked like me. Though many
of my favorite titles were drawn by Asian artists, there were hardly any
Asian heroes in the pages. I was pretty disappointed, but the
revelation didn’t put me off comics. In fact, I expanded the types of
comics I collected because the super hero genre just wasn’t holding up.

Be Careful What You Wish For

I ordered a copy of Secret Identities and waited with great
anticipation. Would this be the Asian American equivalent of the
Milestone Universe, a super hero universe featuring Black super heroes
created in the early 90s. Would this anthology encourage the big two to
feature more Asian American heroes? I conjured all sorts of hopeful
maybes.

It arrived at my doorstep and I tore into the packaging like a mad
wolverine to get to its contents. I couldn’t wait to read about super
heroes that looked like me. But as I turned the pages, I felt my brow
furrow. These weren’t hopeful stories of heroes doing super human deeds.
These were angry stories that sought to punish the White Man for years
of oppression.

To be fair, not every story came from a place of anger. But the
overall vibe of the collection was so angry and bitter that I hid the
thing in a dark place on my shelf. I couldn’t recommend this to my
non-Asian friends for fear that they’d feel like they were being
attacked. I mean, I’m a pretty angry and bitter person in general, but
even I felt put off by the overall tone.

These weren’t the heroes I was looking for. These weren’t the stories I had been waiting for.

A Second Glance

Needless to say, I was a bit hesitant when the Secret Identities crew
contacted me earlier this year to contribute to their second anthology,
Shattered: The Asian American Comics Anthology. I nearly
declined, but I felt that maybe I’d have an opportunity to be part of
the solution, to tell a story that featured Asian characters that wasn’t
bitter or angry. After some soul searching, I agreed.
I was sent a few scripts to consider and already, my fears were put
to rest. These were the kind of stories that I had been looking for. The
one that spoke to me the most was Howard Wong’sMaster Tortoise and Master Hare. As you might guess, it’s a retelling of the classic Tortoise and Hare fable set in ancient China.

One of my biggest concerns was creating a unique look for Master
Hare. To me, the definitive long-eared action hero is Stan Sakai’s Usagi
Yojimbo. I was afraid that my love for Stan and Usagi would creep into
my Master Hare. I hid all my Usagi books and my Stan Sakai sketchbooks
and collected screen shots of Kung Fu villains and photos of hares.
With Master Hare somewhat settled, I went on to design Master
Tortoise. Again, I had to push out childhood favorites out of my mind. I
drew a lot of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles when it first hit the
airwaves in the late 80′s. Their head shapes, body contours, hands are
all second nature to my drawing hand. I can TMNT with the best of them.
So I made a concerted effort to lean on my reference photos of actual
tortoises. Even so, you can see the TMNT influence in Master Tortoise’s
limbs.
I had an absolute blast drawing the story and playing with these
characters. I was pretty pleased with the work and couldn’t wait to see
how it fit into the rest of the anthology.

Shattered, A Triumph

I was absolutely elated when I read through the preview copy of Shattered
that we creators were sent. This anthology is exactly what I had been
looking for. Rather than spending time trying to shame the White Man
for years of oppression, this collection concentrates on telling good
stories that feature Asian leads. This is a comic I would be proud to
share with absolutely everyone I know.
It’s a much more subtle statement than the first collection. It’s not
trying to shame you for ignoring the plight of Asians in America. It’s
telling good stories that are universal in relate-ability and proving
that you can do so while featuring minority leads. It’s a powerful
statement and one of the reasons I think this is such an important work.

Shattered is on shelves now. If you’re in the DC area and haven’t yet picked up a copy, you can come on down to Busboys and Poets on Monday from 6:30pm to 8:00pm for a signing. I suggest grabbing food at Chinatown Express before to stuff your face full of dumpling and noodle goodness.
And if you’d like to hear from some of the other contributors, here’s a list of us who have blogged about our experiences: